How to un-lock a Win98 PC?

I am trying to help someone un-lock a Win98 system. It's an IBMPC300 PII
400. It is a commercial pc with a particular scanning software on it. When
the computer boots up.. its taken directly into this software.

There is no password for the Administrator. The company that used to
service and build these things has gone bankrupt and no information is
available.

There is no access to any files or folders on this PC and we can't seem to
change any settings on it, as it was designed with only one purpose in mind.

If anyone can help us by advising us how to un-lock this system so that we
may have access to the rest of the win98 features such as Control Panel and
the like.. it would be much appreciated.

Ok, the best thing to do in this situation is to get yourself a Windows98
Boot disk and then go into the BIOS on the machine and make sure the boot
settings are set to A:, CDROM, then C:.=0D
Once this is done put the windows98 boot disk in the floppy drive and start
the machine, pay close attention to the monitor it will tell you where
diagnostics are ( what happens is the floppy drive, with the help of the
computer creates a ram drive, where it loads diagnostics ), once the machine
has booted up to the floppy you can format the drive an install a fresh copy
windows,=0D
=0D
Or if you have a full version of Win2K you can boot to the cdrom and let
windows do the work for you, hope this helps=0D
=0D
MGL=0D
=0D
=0D

I was planning on giving my friend dual boot capability with a fresh install
of Win2K on the side. However, it is necessary that I preserve the files
and software on the old O/S (win98). The matter of fact is that the
software is still used on a regular basis for business.

Before I proceed with anything I need to get access to the complete system
through Win98. That is, be able to run windows 98 normally without
restricted access to only the above mentioned software. How do i do this?
What boot/log files do i delete from C:\?

Am I clear on this? Would you have any advice or feedback please?

Thank You very much.

P.S. I have also tried a number of copies of Win2000 CDs but CD rom support
with the win98 boot floppy seems to fail. The client has a 6x speed writer
only on his system. I figure it has somethign to do with this.

At which point did this start happening if it was not that long ago you can
try running the restore command at the dos prompt to see if it will restore
the system to its uncorrupted state, once at the dos prompt the commands are=0D
scanreg/restore and scanreg/fix=0D
=0D

It is a locked PC. It came from the manufacturer for the sole purpose of
using only this one piece of software - as a result no other services or
features can be used on win98. When the computer boots up it only allows
loading of this one piece of software only.

I understand that you can restrict features through various services on
windows and other available applications. However all it take is the
deletion of a couple log files on our drive in order to restore access to
the complete win98 system.

> Sorry, guess i havent been clear on this.
>
> It is a locked PC. It came from the manufacturer for the sole purpose of
> using only this one piece of software - as a result no other services or
> features can be used on win98. When the computer boots up it only allows
> loading of this one piece of software only.
>
>

Is this PC set to work on a network and is not now? If yes try taking out
the network card.. Just a thought!

A log file has nothing to do with the way a computer boots up, it only logs
information that has to do with the machine, A log file lists actions that
have occurred. For example, web servers maintain log files listing every
request made to the server. With log file analysis tools, it's possible to
get a good idea of where visitors are coming from, how often they return,
and how they navigate through a site. Using cookies enables webmasters to
log even more detailed information about how individual users are accessing
a site. =0D
=0D
So it has nothing to do with log files, what you should do is remove all
sensitive data through dos and wipe the drive clean=0D
=0D
And you can unlock the PC in the BIOS=0D
=0D

I know a way that could solve this problem but it could also crash the
system for ever... So, I'll tell you what to do but it's your responsibility
to do it or not...

First of all what is there is that the manufacturer of this computer used
the policy editor for windows 98 (can be found in the untility kit of
windows 98 official CD) and he disabled all the application except the ones
that he wanted it to be used.

All the information is stored in the registery. So, if you deleted the
registery and then restarted your computer everything should go fine...

Before you delete the registery (user.dat is the file name that you delete)
try to type in the run (poledit)... This is the program used for making
policy changes...

First try the poledit.exe it will popup a windows for you where you can
adjust the selections to make everything accessable in this pc...

First of all what is there is that the manufacturer of this computer used
the policy editor for windows 98 (can be found in the untility kit of
windows 98 official CD) and he disabled all the application except the ones
that he wanted it to be used.

Hello Mr Unlock WIN98,Please, press F8 when you see STARTING
WINDOWS98.Select the option '' command prompt ''. and enter to command
prompt.At command prompt, type ' edit autoexec.bat ' and enter.Look for the
line that start your software and type REM in front of it and save it
through thefile menu and do the same thing for '' config.sys'' .The problem
will be solved.Seeya............... Jacob Bondziesoho solutions box ms 236,
new achimota.accra. ghana.tel:233208135771email: email@removed On